As is well known, the hostile environment as that imposed by a jet engine, can adversely affect the operation of the electronics. It therefore is necessary to cool these electronic packages. While there are a number of well known methods of cooling, as for example, tapping into the aircraft's airconditioning system, utilizing heat exchangers cooled by fuel, forced air cooling by ejectors, these methods in one way or another impose a penalty on the engine and aircraft performance.
We have found that we can provide a simple automatic cooling system for the electronics packaged on the engine that is housed in the nacelle compartment without incurring an adverse penalty on the engine and/or aircraft performance. According to this invention, air taps adjacent the engine inlet and on the overboard station of the nacelle are interconnected with the electronics package with suitable connecting lines to flow cool air over the electronic package during the aircraft flight envelope. Under certain operating conditions, the tap at the engine inlet serves as the cooling system's inlet and the overboard tap serves as the exhaust and under other operating conditions the reverse occurs, namely the inlet becomes the outlet and vice versa.